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Rededication

At one point I sort of envisioned that this blog would be a place where I was able to pour out bite sized nuggets of life lessons and theological reflections that occurred to me from time to time. It became a repository for a lot of book reviews (which I am hopelessly behind on doing---I think I have like 20 or more to review, which is daunting to say the least) and my sermon blog.

Not that these are bad things to write about... I just seem to find myself behind the eight ball more often than not, especially of late.

With all of the demands of being the Senior (and only) pastor of a large congregation, a husband, and the father to three boys I've discovered that I don't have a lot of time for creating bite-sized nuggets of life lessons, theological reflections or even book reviews.

On top of everything else, I am going back to school to work on my doctor of ministry and I have a couple of papers to write beforehand.

So why am I telling you all of this?

Here's why: I'm rededicating myself to some things. In fact, I'm rededicating myself to some of the most important things---my relationship with Jesus, my marriage, my kids & family, my role as a pastor, my efforts to study and to learn more about God's Word...

And to this space.

I want to return to my original intent for this blog: to chronicle my journey as a husband, a father, a pastor, a Christ-follower and now as a doctoral student.

So bear with me. There will be an onslaught of book reviews, reflections on life, ministry, faith and other assorted awesomeness in the coming weeks and months.

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There's something about this night that brings us together---even those of us for whom church is not part of or regularly scheduled programming.

I have a soft spot in my heart for the non-Church-y people who find their way to church on Christmas Eve. There were a lot of years when I wasn't really the church going type, you see. In fact, not only was church not part of my regularly scheduled programming, I had pretty much cancelled it from my life altogether. But when Christmas Eve would come around again, as it seems to do each year, I'd discover myself sitting in a pew, showered, shaved and wearing somewhat respectable church clothes.

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This week we're launching a brand new sermon series--a study in the New Testament book of James entitled "Different"---a series exploring what it truly means to live like a Christian.

There are all kinds of people who claim to have a corner on the market when it comes to the marks of what it means to be Christian, and typically the people who feel this way are not shy about telling you all the ways you aren't living like a Christain.

The point of this series is not to leave all of us feeling less-than because we aren't living the kinds of lives we ought to live. The fact of the matter is, none of us live the lives we ought to live---we're all in the same boat here.

The point of this series is to lift up the ways that we can step into the kind of abundant life that Jesus declared he wanted for all of us, and for us to truly live like Christians, people who belong to Jesus.

Today we're going to be learning that one of the marks of the well-led Christian…

Leon Bloder is a preacher, a poet, a would-be writer, a husband, a
father, a son, a dreamer, a sinner, a former fundamentalist, a pastor, a
fellow-traveller and a failed artist. He is talentless, but
well-connected. He stumbles after Jesus, but hopes beyond hope that he
is stumbling in the right direction